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The shopping district.
The explosions had drawn people from every nearby street.
By now, a crowd had gathered at a distance, watching the disaster unfold.
“That boy…
are they just leaving him?”
“What else can they do?
The heroes tried.
This is awful, but he ran in before the heroes could handle it.
You can’t just interfere in an incident and expect no consequences.”
“But he saved his friend!”
At the very back of the crowd, All Might stood in his skeletal form, all bones and sunken cheeks.
The whispers around him scraped at his ears.
He rolled up his sleeve and took a step forward.
He had arrived the moment Ren threw Bakugo clear.
In a bitter way, it was exactly what Ren had been aiming for from the start: show a heroic side of himself, force All Might to notice, and earn a chance at One For All.
Except…
“Ghk!”
All Might’s muscles swelled for half a second.
Then blood burst from his mouth.
His body collapsed inward again, deflating like a punctured balloon.
In the distance, Ren was being swallowed by the Sludge Villain.
The light was fading from his pale eyes.
All Might’s face twisted with guilt.
This was his fault.
If he had not bragged to that boy about his glory days, maybe none of this would have happened.
The thought dragged his gaze toward the green-haired boy standing at the front of the crowd.
Young Midoriya must have been suffering too.
A Quirkless boy who dreamed of becoming a hero, forced to watch another Quirkless boy get abandoned.
“That’s…
the villain from the tunnel?”
Midoriya stared at the mountain of green, foul-smelling sludge ahead of him, shock flooding his face.
It made no sense.
All Might had caught that villain.
Why was he here?
“And why is Ren trapped?
Why is Kacchan here too?
Why does he look like that?”
The memory hit him all at once: Midoriya clinging to All Might’s leg while they flew through the air.
When the pieces clicked together, guilt filled his wide eyes.
Ren’s pain looked like a knife twisting in his chest.
Nothing they could do.
So they were going to give up on Ren?
No.
Midoriya, who had been frozen at the very front of the crowd, suddenly ran.
Gasps broke out behind him.
His body was shaking.
Tears clung to the corners of his eyes.
Still, he ran.
“Ren, hold on!
I’m coming!”
‘Whose voice is that?
Why does it sound familiar?’
Somewhere in the dark, Ren lifted his head on instinct, though he no longer felt like he had a body at all.
‘This…
crybaby?’
His scattered thoughts snapped into focus.
Again.
It was him again.
That damn canon favorite.
Ren, who had almost accepted the darkness, began to struggle.
Somehow, the blackness around him gave way far too easily.
His empty pupils sharpened, and through the haze, he saw a boy with tear-filled eyes rushing toward him.
“Crybaby?”
His mind cleared in an instant.
His vision returned.
The rage did not.
“I told you…” Ren fought against the sludge and roared with raw fury.
“The last person I ever wanted saving me was you, crybaby!”
“I don’t want this either!” Midoriya cried as he ran.
“But I couldn’t stop myself!
My body just moved on its own!”
Ren knew what this meant.
If Midoriya was here, All Might was nearby.
In the end, Ren would be saved because of him.
Maybe this very incident would be what pushed All Might to give One For All to Midoriya.
How was he supposed to accept that?
How could he accept it?
More than ten years of training, day after day, and it still could not beat the weight of an awakened Quirk.
Fine.
He could accept that.
This was a world ruled by Quirks.
But watching Midoriya take the opportunity right in front of him?
Watching himself become a stepping stone in someone else’s story?
That, Ren Mikage could not do.
What could he do?
Reality was cruel.
He knew that better than anyone.
He had been deprived of oxygen for too long.
His organs were already failing.
The clearest sign was the flush rising beneath his normally sick-pale skin.
Even without seeing it, Ren knew what it meant.
A dying body, burning bright for one final moment.
He was going to die.
‘I can’t accept this.’
‘I can’t.
I really can’t.’
‘Damn fate.
If it takes my life, fine.
I still refuse to lose.’
Ren screamed the words in his heart.
As if something had heard him, a violent flame suddenly ignited in a hidden darkness somewhere deep inside his body.
‘What is this power?’
Ren lifted his arm on instinct.
The sludge binding him tore apart with frightening ease.
“R-Ren?
What’s happening to you?”
Midoriya stopped mid-run.
The boy in front of him still looked like Ren, but something about him had changed.
Something terrifying.
“Me?”
Ren raised his head.
For the first time Midoriya had ever seen, he smiled from the bottom of his heart.
“I’ve never felt better.”
Under Ren’s gaze, Midoriya took two shaky steps back.
“Your…
your eyes!”
Eyes?
The Pro Heroes who had been rushing to stop Midoriya looked up as well.
The black-haired boy’s pale pupils had always been unsettling, but now they gave off a faint glow.
Even the faint violet tint of his sclera could no longer soften them.
Everyone present felt their hearts tighten.
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I hope this chapter pulled you deeper into the story.
Stick around, because there’s still a lot waiting just ahead.